Air and Sea
by Ze Great Camicazi
Summary: A Magical Creature AU. Keith is an Avio-human. Lance is a merman. They weren't supposed to like each other... but somehow... something sparks between the two.
1. Chapter 1

**Ok so I got this from some fanart and couldn't get it out of my weee little mind. Soooo this is a world where magical creatures exist and are known but they are segregated, not only from humans but also from one another. The equal rights is just now becoming in effect. That being said there are some differences still being worked out and tempers do tend to flair. Such is the case with Merman, Lance McLain and Avio-human, Keith Kogane.**

Keith sat at the bar, his wings were tight against his back as he nursed the beer that was now, way too warm. He kept his wings hidden despite the newly passed Equality Laws. He lived in South Texas. The laws had a way of taking their sweet time getting here and if it was exposed that he was an Avio-human then he would no doubt be booted out on his tail feathers.

He hated the hate and he hated the segregation but he also had learned early that being Avio-human made him luckier than most. He could tuck his wings against his spine and look absolutely human. He was luckier than most in that aspect. For example the merfolk couldn't leave the water, the centaurs were of course half horse, fauns, harpies… the list was endless. Succubii were also pretty easy to hide but they had the disadvantage of being in a constant state of wanting to bed someone which, if they could control they could hide but they couldn't always.

Of course he was double cursed, also having a Galra for a mother. After the trade had opened between other worlds it wasn't uncommon for aliens to be roaming about. When they had first arrived they had been given the same privileges as humans if full blooded. Half breeds were under similar segregations as the Magics as humans called them. He could somehow hide his Galra genetics also, as long as he didn't come in contact with any of the Quintessence products that the Altaen's and Galra so often used in trade.

With one last brooding sigh he stood and tossed his money on the counter to pay for the beer before heading out the door of the bar. He shoved his hair back and sighed at the feeling of the warm sun on his face. He wished he could just spread his wings and let the sun soak in on them. He missed living in the Mesa's and alone, where he could fly and feel the sun on his warm red feathers. Why the hell did he move to Corpus Christi again? He wondered that as he wondered down the street.

His shirt and jacket were confining his wings painfully. He could have gotten the shirts made for his wings to extend through but he preferred the easier life of not having to be looked down upon, unlike the fae who couldn't hide their delicate gossamer wings, folded against their backs like Avio-humans could.

The scent of the ocean blew over the city and while he wanted to fly over the mountains he figured the ocean breeze would be close enough. He didn't want to reveal his wings around humans and he wanted to stay here a while without being ridiculed for being different and yet he wanted to fly. He wanted to touch the sky like he used to be able to.

He wondered the streets of the town until he made it to the bay. He knew Mustang Island would be the best place to see the ocean but it was crawling with tourists and he did not feel like dealing with that. He didn't like people in the first place. The only reason he was here was because of Shiro. His human friend had been in an accident and had a new Galran prosthesis, he was getting used to. Keith was helping him adjust and trying to keep his own self afloat as he tried to search for a job so he could stay close to his "brother."

He sighed as he stepped onto the beach and took a deep breath of the salty sea breeze. Where he was, was too close to the harbor to have been flooded with tourists and other humans, and it smelled so strongly of fish it almost turned his stomach. But it was secluded, he was the only one here, so he could stretch out his wings and let the breeze waft through his feathers. It wouldn't be long but it would be enough to give his cramped sweaty wings a break from being cooped up against him.

000

Lance was swimming alone. He hated swimming alone but his pod had stayed in Cuba. It made sense really, he was going to study in Texas and stay with his Aunt Rosa, he didn't need his family following him just because he was lonely. It wasn't like he was going along the roads like humans or ground based creatures. The Gulf of Mexico was easier to cross in a straight line than around the continent.

What would take someone from Miami, Florida almost a full twenty four hours to drive took him a lot less shorter of a time to swim. He could swim faster than a lot of cars could drive for a longer time the closer to the surface he swam with the lighter water pressure. Plus he could catch the currents and ride them to rest.

So now after about six hours instead of a car's twenty plus hours, he was swimming along the Padre Island shoreline, headed for the bay where he was supposed to meet his mother's sister. He was tired, he wouldn't lie, but he wasn't completely exhausted. His blue fins were propelling him through the water at a much more leisurely pace now and he couldn't help but glance up when he got to the "Magic's" part of the beach where his people and other with magical creatures were "allowed" to sunbathe.

Lance flipped and winked at a couple of mermaids swimming up to catch some of the warm sun's rays on the beach and some of the sandbars. They giggled as he swam by and waved their fingers at him flirting back. One of them swam over and swam a corkscrew around him.

"Hi," she crooned, "You're new here." Lance could practically feel her song, but since he was a merman it didn't have as strong an effect on him as it did on the people of the land.

"Yeah, just got here from Cuba," he said adding a Spanish flair to "Cuba" to impress, "The name's Lance."

"Nyma," she crooned, tracing a finger over his chin. Lance grinned and felt his face turn a little red. "Can you stay and hang out with us?" she purred, her song filling the water and his head.

"I would love to," he said, "But I gotta go meet my aunt first. Maybe I'll come back by sometime."

"See that you do," Nyma smiled with a wink before swimming back to her friends. Lance watched as she swam away with a happily dazed look on his face as he continued on toward the bend of the island.

He hated how humans and land dwellers ships messed up the sweet smell of the ocean but he understood why they had to do it. He also hated the fact that the only real estate his aunt could afford was in the Bay where it reeked the worst. In Cuba his family, though poor because of all the mouths they had to feed, was on the reefs, beautiful and protected because of the many endangered species that lived there.

Aunt Rosa, however, was married to a fisher who helped humans catch fish in their nets with others in a pod similar to dolphins, which they sometimes used in their work as well. Aunt Rosa mostly stayed home with Lance's little cousins, her family almost as big as her sisters, but then most merfamilies were big. The ocean was a much more unforgiving environment than the land even with the evolutions that the merfolk had made over the years the best assurance for survival was a large family.

He wasn't too thrilled to be spending the next four years in a musty place like the bay waters of Corpus Christi but at least the open oceans and the beaches of Padre Island weren't too far off. He flicked his tail and bustled on toward his aunt's apartment. The long tendrils from his hips and side fins as well as his head were streamlined behind him. In centuries past, when merfolk were still a "wild" people they were used for hunting and lures, the thin membrane in the peacock looking eyes (from what he had heard about and read in his schoolbooks that had been special made for merfolk) reflecting light and drawing in food, doing the same during mating season and changing colors to attract a mate. Now that was about all they were good for.

It didn't bother him that those were the only purpose for the tendrils anymore. He liked the way that they made him look and the way the "stained glass" ends caught the light through the water. He swam to the surface breeching briefly and letting his dorsal fins cut through the surface. Merfolk had differing dorsal fins, some having a single fin sprouting from their spine, some not having a dorsal fin at all, some having as many as four.

Lance had two, spreading like wings when he needed to hover in the water or gliding above the waves in like a flying fish. Sometimes, in moments of duress they could even work like wings under water and propel him faster in the water as a means of better hunting or escape. Merfolk didn't usually hunt anymore but there were still some purists and after all their hunting skills came in handy when they were hired by fishermen.

Only, Lance wasn't planning on being a fish wrangler, as he called them. No he had bigger plans. He was going to be one of the first deep sea human pilot guides. It took, not only the ability to deep sea dive, like he could, but also the ability to be able to pilot a submersible and know how to use them. They were mostly made with Altean and Galran tech so the air locks were better than those made on Earth, and more airtight for humans. It didn't make sense to some for him to go from average air pressure to massive amounts of water pressure in a shock, but it wasn't going to be an instant thing, over a period of roughly thirty minutes he would be introduced to the water pressure and air pressure because of their extended deep sea stay. Even he could only stay that deep in the ocean for only a few hours because of the pressure.

Lance dipped back into the water and folded his fins back against his back and with a little twist was off to his Aunt Rosa's. She was going to be worried as it was and he was late enough. He didn't notice the eyes his little light breech had caught as he sped on further into the bay.

000

Keith had just stretched his wings out to catch the rays of the Texas sun beating down on him when his sharp, hawk-like eyes caught movement under the water. At first he thought it was just a fish until two dorsal fins sliced up out of the water like a pair of fairy wings. (God, Pidge would kill him if she heard him say that) and cut through the water like a lazy knife, before dipping back into the water and disappearing swiftly down the bay.

He hadn't even realized he had jerked his wings in until the beautiful blue shaded fins had disappeared. Even then he didn't know why he had done so. It wasn't like the mermaid would even care if he was Avio-human. But something about those fins…

She must have been singing. That was all Keith could think, because he couldn't keep those pretty blue dorsal fins out of his mind. The sun had glinted off of the fin and through the membrane, putting the water to shame. Of course that wouldn't be difficult in the murky bay, but he felt that those fins could put the crystal clear lagoons to shame as well.

He shook his head and turned back to head back to Shiro's place. He had promised Matt he would be home in time for supper. Pidge was coming. That was always a fun experience. Keith ran his hands through his hair. It was going to be a rough couple of hours while the song wore off and those fins disappeared from his mind.

 **Boom! So a lot of explaining in this chapter. I love and live for magical creatures and myths and stuff so there may be a lot of explaining in this whole story. It is who I am as a mythologist. Sorry not sorry. And yea since it was just Lance's dorsal fins that Keith saw he doesn't know that it is a merman instead of a mermaid. Only mermaids have song that effect the mind so that is the only explanation Keith can come up with.**


	2. Chapter 2

**So I got some great feedback from the first chapter. And minor threats if I didn't start the second chapter post-haste haha. Anyway, on to the next chapter!**

"Where have you been, pequeño tiburón?" Aunt Rosa's frantic voice called, making Lance's ear fronds slam against his head to keep the shrill sound from hurting so especially in the water where the sound traveled at different frequencies. He braced himself to the best of his abilities as the pale jade mermaid barreled into him. She wrapped her arms around her nephew and suddenly they were also swarmed with her offspring. As mermaids could be any color, no matter genetics (his own parents a teal and goldenrod color) he was suddenly surrounded by the rainbow of colors that Rosa's children's scales were.

"Lance is here! Lance is here!" they chanted as they swam in circles around him, over him, and under him, looking for all intents and purposes like the mackerel and smaller fish that the dolphins and other predators of the sea forced into a feeding ball when they were in a frenzy.

Suddenly they all let out shrill screams of mock terror and scattered revealing Lance with his teeth bared and fingers arched into claws, though the actual claws were retracted. Rosa laughed as her children swam around laughing at their silly cousin as well.

"Is that why you call him "tiburón", Mama?" Elena asked her mother, grabbing the mermaid's arm and looking up with sparkling emerald eyes that matched her scales.

"Well, it is one of the reasons, mija," Rosa laughed as Lance joined them chuckling and dropping the fierce shark façade.

"What's the other part, Mama?" Thomas asked, tugging at one of the older mermaid's twin dorsals. Dorsal fins were more of a genetic trait than color. Pretty much everyone in the McLain family had two and it was pure coincidence that the sister's both married into a clan with two dorsal fins. That being the case, and with such an extended family, when Lance was younger he fully believed that every merperson who had two dorsal fins was automatically family.

"Well, niños, Lance can talk to the sharks," she said as if it was something all merfolk could do. Her eldest, Felicity, automatically pulled a face.

"I don't believe it," she said, Lance could tell she was in that awkward rebellious phase some teens went through. "Despite what humans and land dwellers think merfolk cannot talk with fish and I don't like the insinuation that we can coming from my own family."

"Felicity, it is true! I have told you time and again that in the times before it was a useful trait only a few had. Lance is one of the very few who still has that gift!" Rosa argued with her daughter.

"If it ever existed as a trait of the merfolk it is long gone now," she said. "The teachers at school told us so."

"I have told you time and again, they don't know everything, niña," Rosa said sharply to her daughter. This was clearly an argument they had had many times, over Lance or not it didn't matter. It seemed that Felicity was just ready to argue.

Lance looked from the two of them and then around the ocean around him. Chances were there weren't any sharks nearby especially considering the high populace of merfolk. "Aunt Rosa, is there still a nurse shark nesting ground nearby?" Rosa's face lit up and she herded her children and they followed her to the floor of the bay and out to the ocean closer to the nests of the nurse sharks. There were a few of the harmless sharks swimming around.

They swam up to him automatically and swam around him. He smiled and ran his hands over their snouts. "They may not be bull sharks but they still respond to me," he said smiling at Felicity. She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Nurse sharks? Really?" she snorted.

"Los siento, sobrino. She is just in one of those phases…" Rosa said scolding her daughter.

"Oh, I remember those," Lance laughed remembering his own sisters and even his brothers' phases. He knew he must have had them as well once he hit puberty but he didn't remember them as well in himself as he could in others as is the way with everyone. 

"I am not!" Felicity shouted indignantly spinning around and crossing her arms frustrated.

Rosa chuckled and shook her head, "Come along, pequeño tiburón. I know you are tired after your long journey. I made your favorite. Your mother's recipe."

"Yes!" Lance practically sighed and let his aunt and her large family lead him to their home in the bay.

"So do you know who your day trainer will be?" Diego asked, swimming around Lance and taking his older cousins hand, dragging him toward their home.

"Yeah, guys a piloting legend! Takashi Shirogane," he said smiling at his little cousin.

"Human?" his aunt asked a slight sneer on her lips. She wasn't bitter against humans per say but after the way humans had treated anyone with magical abilities or who wasn't human for the last hundred or so years some prejudices were hard to let go of.

"Yeah. But it should be fine. I mean the laws have changed. Equal rights now, right?" Lance asked.

"Some races will never be equal, sobrino," Rosa sighed, swimming into their home built like underwater apartment buildings into the sides of the channel that made up the bay. The sweet scent of fresh food filled his nose as he took a deep breath, the gills at his side filtering out oxygen he needed.

"Have you ever Changed before, Lance?" Josephina asked grabbing one of Lances tendrils from his head to get his attention. He pulled the youngest of his cousins into his arms to give her young fins a rest.

"I haven't, but it can't be that hard right?" he asked, "Not for your cousin Lance?" Josephina shook her head, her little fist already in her mouth as she watched her cousin with wide amazed green eyes. "That's right!" Lance said winking and letting the little girl go so she could swim to her room.

The rest of the evening was a barrage of family: his uncle, Julian telling him of all that had been going on around Corpus Christi, his aunt stuffing him full of food, his older cousins telling them what had been going on in their lives, and the younger cousins showing him all of the toys to their name and with a family that size that took a long time. Finally they bid the young trainee good night and let him get off to his comfortable bed.

000

"I swear to the forest gods, you are a jackass." That was the first thing Keith heard when he walked into Shiro's house. The avio-human ducked just as a vase was tossed at his head. Laughter could be heard nearer to him than the angry voice in the living room. He was weary of venturing into the adjacent room to discover what had caused such a ruckus.

In the end he decided it was probably for the best to move from the line of fire and ducked into the room. He spotted Matt darting past laughing at the small fairy in the far side of the room hands raised and grasping for something else to throw at him.

Matt was Shiro's boyfriend and a male fae. Male fae, as opposed to female, didn't have wings after the age of ten, but still had pointed ears and a certain Charm that they couldn't really disguise mainly because it often caused animals to follow them around if they weren't in control of their powers. Some even had short horns like fauns did. Matt didn't, however.

The angry small fairy on the opposite side of the room was his sister, Katie "Pidge" Holt. She had iridescent green wings and a scowl on her face. Unlike most fae she wore glasses though she didn't really need them, more of a keepsake from before her brother presented his powers as male fairy usually didn't show many fairy like traits save pointed ears until their tenth birthday. She was shorter than most fairies her age and was salty as they come about it. Pidge was a nature fairy and was surprisingly good with technology.

"Hey, Pidge," Keith said, shucking his jacket and letting his wings stretch out a bit.

"Don't you start, too!" she shouted. He could only assume Matt had said something about her small stature again in teasing and it had gotten to her again.

"I was just saying hi," he said, jumping onto the couch and letting his wings drape over the back. "What did they do anyway?" he asked gesturing to the two.

"Hmph," she snorted crossing her arms and letting her fluttering wings rest and her feet touch the ground. "He were saying they didn't think that I could join the Exploration Teams the Garrison is putting together because of my height, not my skills or even because I was fae."

"You gotta quit letting him get to you," he chuckled. "Besides Matt only starts it because you are his sister."

"What is going on in here?" Shiro asked rushing in.

"Save me!" Matt yelped diving behind his boyfriend laughing. Shiro glanced from the giggling Matt to the fuming Pidge to the nonchalant Keith who simply shrugged.

"I just got here," Keith said by way of explanation. He had joined the Exploration Teams that Pidge had mentioned earlier but got kicked out of the Garrison for fighting. He couldn't help it that he was confrontational and wasn't going to take shit off humans who thought they were superior.

Shiro shook his head, "Pidge, you have to learn to let these things go. Ask Keith how well it works to hang onto these petty issues when you are in the Garrison?"

"It doesn't work well if you want to stay in the Garrison," Keith said shrugging. "But I have principals and getting treated like I am less just because I have wings is not okay with me. I am not apologizing."

Shiro shook his head. "Thanks, Keith." The avio human on the couch shrugged.

"So what's this semester look like, teach?" Keith asked once the situation had been fully defused.

"I have two boarding students and a day student," Shiro said sitting down beside Keith and leaving Matt to fend for himself against his sister.

"Oh?"

"Since I am the only one really willing to take magics, I have a centaur from Hawaii named, Hunk. He'll be boarding with us, Pidge here is one of my students, so she'll come and go as she pleases."

"Damned straight," she shouted back from where she had chased her brother down the hallway toward the kitchen.

"Language, Pidge!" Shiro shouted, more of a family member than a teacher to the feisty fairy.

"And the day student?" Keith suspected a being that had to live in its natural habitat or couldn't be away from it for long so when Shiro replied he wasn't too surprised.

"He's a merman. His name is Lance," Shiro said. Keith nodded and his thought's absently drifted to the mermaid he had seen earlier that day.

"What's on your mind?" Shiro asked.

Keith shook his head, "Nothing, just thinking about…stuff."

"Uhh-huh," Shiro said not really sounding like he believed Keith. "Well, we probably need to get to the kitchen and eat something before Pidge and Matt destroy the place." Keith cringed. Shiro was a great "older brother" and amazing at so many things but cooking was not one of those things. "Don't worry. Matt cooked," the older man said practically reading his mind. Keith nodded and followed Shiro into the kitchen snagging a brief meal before retiring for the night. After all he did start a new job in the morning.

 **Surprise! New chapter! Hope you guys enjoy it!**

 **KaylatheRandomNerd: I hope this meets your expectations**


	3. Chapter 3

**On to the next chapter! Lance Changes for the first time and Keith heads to his new job after a fam morning.**

Keith rolled over and groaned. He did not want to get out of bed. He did _not_ want to go to this god awful job. He wanted nothing more than to just lay in bed or go for a long flight over the ocean this morning. He knew he couldn't. If he was bunking with Shiro and Matt the least he could do was toss in his aid in paying the bills. The black haired avio human rolled from bed and groggily made his way to the kitchen.

"Morning, Keith," Matt greeted setting the plate of pancakes before the tired avio human, with his wings trailing behind him, the red and black speckled hawk-like wings trailing a good few feet behind him.

"Want some bacon to go with that?" Matt asked still standing by the skillet. Keith nodded an affirmative. At that moment Pidge drug in, her wings twitching as she flopped onto her own stool head hitting the counter as Matt pushed her plate to her.

"Yeah, please," Keith said.

"Shiro go get the others?" Pidge asked not bothering to open her eyes.

"Yeah," her brother said smiling. "Said he'd be back before lunch."

"Mmm," she muttered. "I'm going back to bed."

Matt shook his head and chuckled, "Better eat your pancakes first. They won't be any good when you get up later."

"Mm-hm," she groaned, slowly shoveling in the pancakes her brother had made.

"Slow down!" Matt laughed, "You are gonna choke yourself!"

"Don't care," she muttered.

"She just wants sleep," Keith chuckled pushing his own plate back. "I gotta get ready for work."

He shook his head and shoved his seat back. "I'll see you later," he said chuckling, "Don't kill yourself Pidge." The little green fairy tossed her hand over her shoulder in acknowledgement that she heard Keith but didn't slow down at all.

Keith shook his head again at the feisty fay and went to pull on his jacket and hide the avian shirt he wore. "I'm gone, Matt. See you when I get home."

"See you later," he said waving.

Keith just chuckled as he started off to his new job. God how he didn't want to be there. He hated being around humans or people of any sort. He started towards the cargo bay where his first assignment was. He couldn't believe that he had been reduced to a cargo pilot after being one of the top fighters in his class. Damnit. Keith shoved his hand through his hair and signed in.

000

Lance waved goodbye to his family as he swam up to the surface, "See you guys later tonight!" he called.

"Remember to get yourself in the water and not dry out, mijo," Rosa called.

"I will!" Lance shouted back waving. With a tail flip he sped up to the surface and burst through to the fresh air and sun of the upper world and to the Change Pad.

"Lance McLain?" he heard his name and glanced up, his eyes still getting used to the new light. "I'm Takashi Shirogane, but you can call me Shiro. I'll be your instructor," he said offering a hand. Lance grabbed it and was pulled onto the Changing pad made specifically for merfolks to change shape to be able to walk on land.

"Nice to meet you," Lance said taking the clothes offered by Shiro and letting the human close the curtain so Lance could change in a private setting. "Not going to lie, this is my first Change… it may take a while."

"No rush. I've already picked up the other student I had to and our third cadet is actually my boyfriend's sister and she crashed at our place last night."

"Boyfriend?" Lance asked. Shiro bristled getting ready to defend Matt and his relationship. The curtain shifted and Lance was sitting there in the jeans and shirt Shiro had provided. "Is he cute?" Lance smirked. Shiro visibly relaxed and stepped forward.

Lance held his hand up. "Sorry, I don't know how to walk. I've never had legs before. This is my first time on land," he explained. "I may need some help."

"No problem," Shiro said, taking his hand and pulling the merman to his wobbly new feet. "Easy," Shiro said as they started to stumble to the end of the dock. "If you need a break during the day, we have a saltwater pool," he said sort of off-handedly.

They stumbled to the end of the dock where a bay centaur stood waiting, back hoof tilted up resting. The boy was dressed in yellow with an orange headband pushing his shaggy bangs from his eyes. He perked up when he saw them.

"Hey, guys… is… are you okay, dude?" he asked Lance.

"First time on land," Lance said. "I'm Lance, by the way."

"I'm Hunk. Need a lift?" he asked turning his hindquarters to Lance. "It's gotta be easier for me to carry you than Shiro." Lance glanced at Shiro who shrugged. Lance reached for the centaur, legs wobbling as the boy lifted him and swung him onto his equine back.

"Is this not weird?" Lance asked. "I mean I know I've literally spent my entire life underwater but…"

"Eh, most humans used centaurs for heavy labor anyway, oh… no offense, Shiro," the boy said flushing and turning to the only human as he followed.

"It's nothing to do with me. Most humans did and still do that. Hopefully with the new laws passed things will change though."

"Well, it's done some good already. I mean look! A merman and a centaur going to a once exclusively human school," Lance said with a smile.

"And a fairy," Shiro said smirking thinking of Pidge, "Just be warned, Texas is gonna take a little longer than the rest of the world to accept the change."

"A fairy?!" Lance said, leaning forward surprised and elated.

"Yeah, Matt's sister, but just a warning, Pidge is… quite the handful," Shiro chuckled. "And do not, whatever you do, mention the word cute."

 **Alright there is your latest chapter. Forgive me for the hiatus. Life has been harsh lately.**

 **KaylaTheRandomNerd: I hope you are still enjoying it XD**


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